A Life That Revolved Around You
by Cezille07
Summary: Summer ends, and so does a bond that had only ever grown stronger over the years. Yet illusions of a "past" life remain alive for Ferb, who struggles to cope without his other half. COMPLETE.
1. Eternal Summer Legacy

**A Life That Revolved Around You**

_Cezille07_

A/N: Woohoo, second P&F fic! I got really inspired by The Illustrious Crackpot's "Show Me Fifty Times Over and I'll Believe You," and thus this fic, whose title I really can't seem to decide on, was born. (Also because of that work, I feel quite corrected on some relationship dynamics in "Where's Ferb?", but oh well. Y'all loved it anyway, didn't you? DIDN'T YOU? Kidding. Sorry. ;D )

Disclaimer: So anyway, I'm a Ferb-freak who writes songs and stories, draws decently, sings, and makes programs. What I _don't_ do is copy off of people's CRAZY, BRILLIANT IDEAS (cough cough—"Phineas and Ferb" being one of those). Plagiarism is just _sick_. Got it? ;)

* * *

Chapter 1. Eternal Summer Legacy.

The alarm failed again.

Thirty minutes past six, Ferb opened his eyes and looked over at Phineas' bed. His brother returned the sleepy gaze, quietly admiring the other's still form.

"We'd better get ready now; we're running late," Phineas reminded him, and Ferb mechanically got to his feet and ambled to the bathroom with a towel.

_Monday, second week of school_, he thought, briskly finishing off his everyday look by buttoning his shirt. He didn't even realize he was ramming cereal by the tons down his esophagus less than a minute later. _It still doesn't feel like school yet. Nope, I'm never getting that feeling._ He had drawn up a large blueprint for a memory scanner that would project a holographic image of any memory—not as good as a time machine, but they had done that before. When he showed it to Phineas last night, he shot up in a "Eureka!" jump and agreed they would work on it first thing after school.

* * *

Ferb greeted Isabella as he passed by her window seat, "Hey Isabella," trailed closely by Phineas, who only waved a dismissive hello. The girl barely gave them a notice; she remained staring out at the window, an empty, glazed look on her passive face.

"Let's stay in the back," Phineas pointed to the pair of empty seats six rows away from the blackboard. "We may be able to improve the draft for our big plan today," he winked.

The teacher arrived no sooner than the boys dumped their bags on the floor and Ferb unfolded the paper that was larger than him threefold. "Well, let's start our topic again, as usual. There's no other way to start than to just start," the middle-aged, balding man cracked, shrugging at the idea. "You back there, this _is_ Trigonometry class, isn't it? Put that thing away so we can get on with starting."

Ferb grumbled. He had tried resisting the pens, the inks, the French curve, the rest of his tools. But Phineas was always around. Phineas was always coming up with outrageous ideas. Phineas, who tried waiting for the precise time Perry would go vanish to some parallel dimension and return a few hours later, who had the million questions, always inspired him, Ferb, to create the million answers.

* * *

Candace walked into the backyard just as Ferb tacked the day's blueprints onto his portable corkboard.

"_What_ are you doing?" she asked. Ferb almost admitted to missing her using that very tone with them; she had moved away to a dormitory the day school rolled in last week. "I can't believe this. Fifteen and still working on those summer projects _during school_. Don't you, like, have any homework?"

The green-haired boy tilted his head towards the sliding glass door, where a view of the kitchen showed his trigonometry work posted on the fridge by a magnet.

"Okay, so, what _is_ that thing?" Candace had her hands on her waist. "Not like I'm still planning on telling mom. Years of that have taught me to keep my hallucinations to myself," she laughed. "So anyway?"

Ferb, still without directing a glance at his sister, cocked his head, this time at the neat blueprint in front of him.

"Fine, not talking to me eh?"

"That's Ferb, you know it," remarked Phineas as he stood by his working counterpart. The sister had no other option but to watch Ferb complete the machine.

At that moment, Linda stepped out into the backyard and saw them. "Oh Candace. I thought I heard your voice! You didn't tell me you were coming over; I could've picked up some groceries to prepare a nice dinner for you."

"Sorry mom," replied the now legal adult. "I just thought I'd drop by. I missed the house, but not as much as I missed the boys."

"Aww honey, that's so sweet! I'm just inside reading if you need me," and the woman excused herself and retreated indoors.

"So you missed us? Huh, huh, huh?" Phineas prodded. By now he'd grown taller than her, only a few inches short of Ferb's height. She didn't even look up to answer, "Of course, I just needed to make mom feel better. The only reason I'm here is the house."

"That's ridiculous. We love you, sis," the youngest said. Ferb shook his head. To be honest, he didn't miss her as much, although Phineas always wondered what she was up to as a free college student. Always wondered what _they'd_ be like when _they _were in college themselves.

"So when will you be done?" pressed Candace, pacing the three meters of grass behind her stepbrother. "Maybe now that you're grown up you don't care about keeping or magically destroying whatever this is. Can I keep it after you finish using it?" She waited. "Come on, just answer me Ferb. Ferb?" With an exasperated groan she lunged for the blueprint and tore it up into pieces. "Fifteen and you're still not answering me!"

"Candace, that wasn't nice," the youngest asserted. But Ferb ignored both of them. He tightened the last bolt on the door, knocked on it twice to check if it was sturdy, and went inside. _Oh Phineas..._he thought, allowing the semi-translucent glass panel to hide his expression, _I haven't stopped missing you at all..._ With a steady hand, he gripped the helmet before jamming it securely on his head, and activated the memory scanner.

Candace's jaw remained open during the horrifically accurate depiction of just last week...Phineas' last moments on earth.


	2. Faith, not Fate

**A Life That Revolved Around You**

_Cezille07_

In this chapter: Ferb's memory-scanner reveals the events of last week, the first day of school. I don't need to say this, but _this_ will make the first chapter make sense...if you haven't gotten it yet. ;D

* * *

Chapter 2. Faith, not Fate.

"_Hey Ferb!"_

_It was the first thing in the morning Ferb awoke to. He easily caught the pillow his brother tossed. Yes, he knew it even before Phineas could remind him. First day of school. So begins the ten months of conformity to standards set for children, to which he very seldom felt he was super-ordinate. But anything he did with Phineas made for a day well-brewed to perfection, and school, no matter how much he'd miss vacation, would nonetheless be another fun way of venting out his insatiable genius. Of course there were the hours, the extra work they were expected to carry out. Never mind those. Everything was possible._

"_Bro, your turn at the bathroom," Phineas reminded him. Ferb rolled his eyes and got into the shower, remotely commenting to himself never to dive headlong into a soliloquy when getting ready for school. _

_The first devastating sign that made him wish summer lasted forever was the bulletin post on the corner a few steps inside the elementary building._

"_What? We're _not_ classmates? That's a first," Phineas rightly remarked. "Oh well, I'll see you at break."_

_He left without so much as a goodbye, not even the smallest wave. Bitterly, Ferb saw his own classroom three doors east of his brother's, and quietly waited for the day to end._

_

* * *

_

_Baljeet was rushing his first math homework through lunch break, even though it was due on Friday. Sitting with Phineas and Buford in the same side of the long, rectangular table, he had a nice view of the double doors that were the entrance to the canteen. A good thing, because the sight of random teachers coming in sent him ducking underneath the table until he was done re-computing his answers for the fifth time. _

"_Relax, Baljeet, you always get A's no matter what," Phineas said, patting his friend on the shoulder. _

There you are, helpful as always, _thought Ferb_.

_He had just walked inside the large, student-filled area, followed by Isabella, who was the only classmate familiar to him. They were the last students dismissed from Trigonometry class because, apparently, the teacher had a knack for opening speeches. _

"_Ferb! Over here!" called Phineas, waving a little too wildly. _

_Ferb grinned, quite for the first time that day. He led the bow-topped lady across the hall and sat beside his redheaded brother. _

"_So, how were your classes?" Phineas asked both of them. _

_Isabella blushed a little before twirling a strand of hair between her fingers and whispering, half to herself, "They were terrible. I missed you—uhh, I mean, I missed having you as a classmate," she corrected herself. _

"_How 'bout you, Ferb?" _

What she said, _Ferb gave a sigh. He couldn't begin to describe what being apart from Phineas was like. "Fine," he lied, gulping, and let Isabella ramble about the Trigonometry teacher's indulgent speech on having breakfast before coming in to class. _

_

* * *

_

_Final period was history. Ferb's head rested listlessly on his hand, and his mind hovered three rooms away. To have gotten Mr. Putter would have been bearable in a seat other than the very middle one in the front row. His usual spot every year, next to Phineas'... _

"_Ferb Fletcher? Earth to Mr. Fletcher?" _

"_Huh?" _

_The other kids were giggling behind their hands. Ferb stood up and faced the white-haired man in checkered suspenders. _

"_Where is your focus, hmm?" inquired Mr. Putter, hands on his waist. "Would you care to explain the last paragraph I was discussing in front of you?"_

_Ferb held himself steady. He wasn't really listening, but he had read that section a dozen times before school started; Phineas was too excited to pass up the chance to advance a little in every subject, and Ferb was the perfect speed-reader-slash-teacher. "Sir, I—"_

"_Maybe you don't care to keep your brain intact while in class, but I will not tolerate a waste of my breath and energy."_

"_I was about to start—"_

"_Aha! It's the first day so I won't hand out detention. Sit down, boy. But I don't like seeing eyes wandering all over the room, out the window, on the door..."_

_Ferb sat down crossly, ignoring Isabella's friendly attempts at consoling him. A smile would have worked for Phineas, but not him. Darn, _where_ was all the sanity?_

_

* * *

_

_He was able to escape by running to the water fountain with an empty plastic bottle. One, not good for the environment, and two, the fountain wasn't dispensing any water. He tried the two lower floors, with each stair-side fountain producing the same zero outcome._

_It was then he heard some loud screeching from outside. The school's front lot was the parking space. _Funny, if anyone thought of randomly launching themselves full speed at us students, they've always had the means._ No sooner than Ferb was done thinking, the main doors banged open, disintegrating on impact with the massive, high-velocity scrap of painted metal. He shielded himself with his arms, and when the smoke cleared, there was the car, lying completely still. _

_His first instinct was to help the driver, stuck and unconscious to his seat. The damage was critical, there was blood—but a guard came forward to assist the poor man. _

_Ferb dusted his clothes, walked back to the classroom without much incident. He did see Phineas, though, just emerging from his class, an empty water bottle in hand. They waved at each other, grinning at the thought that they were always thinking and doing the same thing at the same time, as they went their separate ways. _

_Just as Ferb got comfortable in his seat again, there was an earth-shaking explosion..._

_

* * *

_

_Perry thought he'd blown his cover by running on two legs at the hair-raising scream that arrived with Ferb when he came home from school that afternoon. The platypus had just resisted putting on his hat for fear of Monogram suddenly whisking him away to some new, uninteresting host family. He dropped to all fours again when he reached the living room, and there he found Linda and Ferb both crying on the couch. _

"_Slow down, honey, tell me again how it happened," the mother tried, and failed, to remain calm herself as she asked. _

"_I saw Phineas just before..." choked Ferb through impossible sobs, "i-it was my fault, I should have..."  
_

_Suddenly the door burst open, Isabella letting herself in and running straight to Linda's open arms. _

"_It's not real! I _can't_ believe it!" she cried, distraught._

"_Kids, can any of you _please_ tell me what happened to Phineas?" Linda said, above normal speech to be better heard. Exactly at that moment, the phone rang. "Hello, who is this please?"_

"_Hello. This is the principal from Danville Elementary. We're very sorry Mrs. Fletcher, but your son Phineas was involved in a terrible accident today."_

_

* * *

_

_Doofenshmirtz barely had time to react to the door crashing down; Perry had instantly delivered a flying kick to his large jaw and knocked him nearly unconscious, but awake enough for an interrogation. _

"_What now, we just finished up today's evil scheme a couple hours ago—"_

_Again, Perry hit him, this time on the shoulder. _

"_You're not listening to me! Hang on, I don't even know what you're beating me up for this time!"_

_Perry removed the fedora and dropped a photo from within it. It was of a ruined car...and Phineas, sprawled on the tiled floor just inside the school's elementary building...bloody and most likely dead._

_Doofenshmirtz stiffened at the sight. Taking the picture, he faced the animal and asked, in possibly the most serious tone he had ever used, "Are you accusing me of this?" _

_Perry's beady eyes didn't yield. He snatched the print back, stuffed it inside the hat. _Don't lie to me,_ he wished he could say so the doctor would understand. Phineas, dead! The boy who loved him beyond the wildest limits of his imagination! The first person to care enough that he was in an animal shelter, kept alive only as a public spectacle! Monogram had just gotten around the law to let the Flynn family take him in, as it was illegal to domestically own a duckbill. _

_Doofenshmirtz seemed to have noticed the pensiveness in his eyes, or perhaps found a loophole. "This really wasn't my doing. I could explode a car in a million, more original ways. But kudos to the guy who can guiltlessly harm an innocent boy! Now _that's_ evil!" he ended in a glorious laugh. _

_Perry finally sent him to sleep with his more precise hand blows to the forehead. If he didn't do this...who did?_

_

* * *

_

_Lawrence came rushing home from the library to hear the news more clearly. For sure, it couldn't have been _his_ Phineas on the television. Not his own Phineas in critical condition with barely any hope of survival from the brutal impact of some reckless driver. Not the Phineas who, from the occasional days he witnessed, simply did a million impossible things and remained childlike and innocent the way he was, always was. _

_Linda greeted him with a teary hug. Grabbing only one change of clothes, the family got into the station wagon and made for the hospital. _

_So that when Candace got home from her date with Jeremy, she was utterly clueless, thought the boys were up to some large-scale doing as usual, and headed to her room to finish up the last of those assignments with the help of Stacy. _

* * *

Of course, it could only hit Ferb the hardest. The small Indian boy and his bully ceased the occasional house calls for random tips and bits of help. Isabella might think she lost the most of Phineas; that day, she quit the Fireside girls and left her sanctuary, her room, only to linger, ghostly, in school ever since.

It took a little more than begging, more than compromise, for the parents to let Ferb stay in his old room, the room he used to share with Phineas. No fixing, no redecorating whatsoever. Linda thought it would have been more appropriate if they, for example, lived with Reg and Winifred, at least temporarily, until the trauma passed—as if that were really possible. Lawrence felt compelled to agree with his son, whose only reasoning was that he "belonged here no matter what."

Since then, Ferb began speaking more often, a desperate attempt to fill the silence left by his brother.

"Hey Isabella," he greeted that pink-bowed lady by the far window, a little more casually than usual, every time he came to class. She would give a half-glance, then continue the endless stare of longing at the indefinite clouds. Given just a little more time, she would have become Mrs. Isabella Garcia-Shapiro _Flynn_.

_Some things_, Ferb would whisper to himself as he found his own seat at the very back of the room, _will just never be the same again._

* * *

A/N: In short, Ferb had succumbed to an intricate hallucination ever since that fateful day. If you remember, in the first chapter, Candace initially asked questions about homework and the blueprint using "you", but eventually she ended up addressing only Ferb: because Phineas was never there that afternoon.

Now, the final segment is on its way. Meanwhile, maybe you have the time to review... ;D


	3. Truth

**A Life That Revolved Around You**

_Cezille07_

A/N: Final chapter – Candace uncovers the dark secret to Ferb's 'emotional stability'.

* * *

Chapter 3. Truth.

"Ferb! _Ferb!_" Candace found herself pounding at the locked doors to the memory scanner once she heard a loud thud from inside, which had shaken her from the enchantment of reliving last week's dreadful tragedy. "Open up, Ferb! C'mon!"

At last the metal door gave way. Ferb was unconscious. Candace saw the hideous helmet-like structure jammed onto his head tightly; she dragged him out and fanned his face with her hand. "Please wake up, _please_ wake up..." she whined, and tried to take off the helmet to no avail. "Ugh, don't do this, Ferb!"

He coughed twice, and suddenly his eyes fluttered open. As if disgusted by her proximity, he coarsely raised himself to his feet, removed the helmet, and, throwing it carelessly into the memory scanner, stomped towards the sliding glass doors.

"Where are you going? What happened back there? Ferb, can't you hear me? Get back here!" yelled Candace. Her hands found their way to their usual place on her waist, and the eyebrows routinely fell back into a knit. She cast a glance back at his newest working invention as she darted after him, and decided that busting anyone was going to be the least of her concerns for the rest of her life.

_

* * *

_

_Candace forced her weary eyes open. Five in the morning, not much sleep the night before. But she sat on that old dormitory bunk bed, remembering what took place precisely seven days ago, plus or minus a few hours...in some place almost illusory and nonexistent. She peeked into the next bed; Stacy was still sleeping. Candace got dressed and was boarding the next train to Danville in an eye's blink. _

_Her classes could wait. _

_She had used college as an excuse to get out of the house. Promising she'd live with Stacy in a dormitory nearest the campus, she packed her bags and left sooner than Phineas' ashes were handed over from the crematorium. It was that the mood was impossible to breathe in, or that Jeremy had moved weeks ago to get a job in a Mr. Slushy Dawg franchise in that area. Or that Ferb's distance made her more and more guilty—she simply couldn't console him. _She_ had lost a brother too...but she also knew that wherever a 'Phineas' was, a 'Ferb' was there also. The inseparable duo was, for the first and final time, broken apart. _

_Invisible beneath a thin shadow from their old backyard tree, she stood by the fence, observing how differently the house looked in the weak dawn sunlight. Physically, not much, but there was a pulsating life within, which plainly diminished in logarithmic time. She let out a sigh as Lawrence, carrying a backpack, walked out the front door with Ferb. They would be walking to school, assumed Candace; the car was reserved—Linda was already busying herself with some unimportant errands for the day. _

_Ferb was looking ahead with a complacent grin on his often straight face. _

_Candace clearly heard him saying, "Phineas, I know what we're gonna do today..." as they vanished behind the curb. _

_It was easy to disregard that single overheard line, but when she saw the boys' bedroom, the shock only escalated. Linda had left her a voice message about what happened after she left; it included Ferb fighting almost literally with fire for the rights to stay in his room. _

_And now she could see why. A week after, none of Phineas' things had been moved at all: even the last change of clothes he wore before putting on the school uniform lay in a crumpled heap on his bed. A tear lingered on the corner of Candace's eyes. She couldn't imagine the mere effort it must take for Ferb to keep going..._

_

* * *

_

_She didn't realize that she'd been sitting on the foot of Phineas' bed, hugging his pillow for hours—it was mid-afternoon already. The front door opened and closed in quick succession. _Who just arrived home? _Candace_ _looked outside the window, and remembered the countless times she saw her brothers in the middle of some ambitious feat... they would always make "awesome" sound painfully ordinary. _

"_What are you doing?" She saw him tacking oversized sheet of white and blue paper onto a portable corkboard as she ambled towards his work station in the backyard. She stuck a makeshift grin on her face, but Ferb ignored her. "I can't believe this. Fifteen and still working on those summer projects during school. Don't you, like, have any homework?" _

_Instead of replying, he tilted his head towards the sliding glass door. In plain view, the fridge was covered in neat pieces of pad paper drabbled with thin black ink. _

"_Okay, so...what is that thing?" Candace gulped, pulling the neckline of her blouse. "Of course, not that I'm still planning on telling mom..."_

_Again, silence, coupled with the slightest tilt of his head towards the blueprint._

"_Fine, not talking to me eh?"_

_If Linda hadn't appeared in the backyard to distract her, to make small talk about casual visits and dinners and—_

_Candace heaved a sigh. "So when will you be done?" she asked after their mother retreated indoors. No answer. Of course. She began to pace the patch of grass right behind him, her natural stretch of patience shortening by habit. "Come on, just answer me Ferb. Ferb?" _

_He didn't even wait for her to finish the tirade. Angrily—angrily! As if he were on the curious end!—he stepped into his machine, and the furious lights show began. _

* * *

Ferb huffed. He locked the room just in time; within seconds, Candace was banging on the door, yelling, "Ferb! Open up! I want to talk to you!"

_I don't think so_, he thought, casting the day's millionth glance at his brother's bed. He saw the tiniest new crease on the bed sheets. _Ugh!_ _She's been here! She's touched his things!_

"Candace, honey, keep your voice down," called Linda, but the daughter instantly refuted, "Not now, mom! Ferb, let me in—"

Ferb threw the door open. "Then come in and _shut_ up!"

Candace was taken aback, and it showed. She bit her lip, stepped inside cautiously. "Ferb, I just want to know if you're alright," she said tentatively as he slammed and re-locked the door behind her. "We're all coping, direly, and..."

He met her eyes with icy blankness.

"I don't necessarily understand you the way you need it, but we're all here for each other, right?" Candace forced herself to say.

"Ferb, what's she talking about?" asked Phineas from the elder's bed.

_Don't worry, I'll send her away before she finds out our little secret. _

Instinctively, Ferb reached into his pocket, only managing to turn away partially before uncapping the orange, plastic bottle and shaking a fair amount of its contents onto his hand.

"What are you doing, Ferb?" Candace looked over.

And Phineas followed suit, "What's that, bro?" What worried Ferb was the astonishment that accompanied the wide-eyed stare. "Ferb, is _that_ what I think it is...?"

Ferb shut his eyes and walked a few steps away from them.

_I'm not coping 'direly'_, he justified, grinning whilst the bulk of reality faded into the background. The new, ash-filled, porcelain vase on the shelf then disappeared. Their school bags were ready for tomorrow. A monster of an idea for tomorrow's project shone from heaven through the window, a quaint spotlight on his brother, smiling, on his bed.

_I call it 'happiness', but the world knows it as 'hallucinogens'._

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**_**END**_**  
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A/N: Aha! I know what you're thinking! ...Well, actually I don't. Clue me in and give it a review. ;D


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